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Supreme Court Denies Request to Hear DACA Case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Justice Department's request to intervene in a case challenging President Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, reported The Washington Post.

Federal district judges in California and New York have issued temporary nationwide injunctions halting plans to end the program, siding with states and organizations challenging the administration's rescission. The court rulings ordered the government to resume renewing DACA and work authorizations for the 690,000 previous beneficiaries who held that status when the Trump administration announced the end of the program on September 5.

No appellate court has reviewed those decisions, and it would have been exceedingly rare for the Supreme Court to take up a case without that interim step, the Post reported. In the past, the court has granted such cases only in matters of grave national importance, such as the controversy over President Richard Nixon's White House tapes or solving the Iranian hostage crisis.

The litigation will now take its usual course, meaning that the injunctions preventing the Trump administration from unwinding the program will remain in place as the lower courts continue their reviews. Under the terms of the temporary injunctions, the government must process applications for DACA renewals, but not first-time DACA applications.

DACA recipients and Dreamers will continue to face uncertainty until lawmakers reach a bipartisan legislative solution, though. Congress has made little progress on a political resolution, with Trump and Republicans demanding that a DACA fix be coupled with changes to other immigration programs and money for Trump's wall on the Mexican border.

On Tuesday, Senators Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) introduced legislation that would provide a three-year extension of DACA with $7.6 billion for the Trump administration's border plan, The Hill reported. The legislation comes after the Senate rejected a number of measures that would have included permanent protections for 1.8 million immigrants brought into the country illegally as children. Senators are reportedly eyeing a short-term fix, potentially dropping the provision into next month's government funding bill, as they search for ways to break a months-long stalemate, according to the Hill.